By Raheem Akingbolu
Experts, including the Managing Director, PZ Cussons Family Care, Alex Goma and President of Nigeria Chapter of International Coach Federation, Ajibola Ponnle, have called on public and private sector executives in Nigeria to key into the benefits of coaching in order to optimise the human capital of the country and achieve reasonable development.
They made the call during a conference organised by the ICF chapter in Lagos, in commemoration of the 2017 International Coaches Week.
Goma, who spoke on ‘What Businesses Need From Coaches for Transformation’, stated that if the fundamental role of business remains relatively constant in the area of value creation by providing the goods and services that people need or want, then the biggest impact would lie in driving the right leadership behaviour and linking to performance to create the right performance culture.
‘’Organisations that build a performance culture with the right leadership behaviours and values are more likely to win. Business transformation and sustainability occurs when a leadership culture exists across any organisation’’, he said.
The ICF president, Ajibola Ponnle, in her keynote address, lamented the rate of misconception about coaching in Nigeria. According to her, coaching helps unlock potentials needed for development, but Nigeria seems not to be moving with the ongoing silent global revolution.
She said: “In our environment, people are still very confused about what coaching is. When you talk about coach, they think of a football or athletics coach. But we tell people that we are life, executive and leadership coach. There’s still a lot of misconception about what it is and what we do. So the aim is to tell people about what coaching is and how it call help their organisation to increase their bottom line and even individuals to perform better and live more satisfied lives in general.”
Speaking on the benefits of coaching, she explained that coaching is a global trend and is being deployed in every sector of the economy around the globe. She stated that if well embraced will help develop sectors of the Nigerian economy.
“For Nigeria right now, the focus is on entrepreneurship, agriculture, SMEs. The federal government has identified these sectors as the drivers of the economy. What you find out with a lot of entrepreneurs is that they have the vision and idea; many of them lack the skills and someone that would help channel the skills, and also make them accountable. Having a coach with small businesses would help the company stay focused on the targets. It would help achieve the business objectives. Coaches really work in every sector. We have professional, life, corporate and leadership coaches. The key is that for whatever goal you set, we help develop the strategies to achieve them.”
Ponnle added that coaching will also be invaluable in the public sectors as it would keep officials on their toes and make them accountable.
